The 'Press' cars were vehicles used by Ford Motor Company for press photographs, appearances at motorshows and given to the media for test drives etc.

 

The first 6 cars were given the number plates V1 FRP to V6 FRP, V1 FRP is owned by Ford and is part of their Heritage collection. V1 - V6 cars were used for the San Francisco Press Launch in December 1999; further information can be found here.

 

Ford produced 23 press cars in total, press release examples differ very slightly to the regular Ford Racing Puma the differences to the best of our knowledge are as follows-

 

• Inlet manifolds are engraved with FMC; FMC001 to FMC023

• Engine bay and front slam panel were painted in the body colour rather than satin black

• V1 - V6 FRP (manifold number FMC001 to FMC006) were fitted with 30mm rear axle spacers

• V1 - V6 FRP (manifold number FMC001 to FMC006) had spare wheel hooks still fitted (remaining cars had the spare wheel hook removed and blanking plate fitted in the boot floor)

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The images to the right hand side show press release photographs from Ford. The eagle-eyed will noticed that again there are differences between the car in the image and the final production vehicle these include-

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• Black wing mirror covers; production cars came with body coloured mirror covers in Imperial Blue

• The wheels have a deeper concave in the middle around the wheel nuts; possibly due to a change in supplier

• Badges on the rear quarter windows had the Puma logo underneath the Ford Racing logo

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